Movie Review – Manjummel Boys

An ode to Bromance

Long time back, when I was in school, I wanted to gift my best friend (male), the lyrics of “Mellinamae Mellinamae” from ‘Shahjahan’. Those were the days where we didn’t have internet to find the lyrics, it’s all heard through radio. ‘Shahjahan’ especially had songs with great lyrics. “Mellinamae Mellinamae” and “Minnalai Pidithu” were the ones at the top of the list. As we used to discuss the lyrics of both in school during all the periods, I thought of gifting the lyrics of my favorite among the two, “Mellinamae Mellinamae” to my best friend. I then dropped the idea thinking it’d be too gay. But see now, director Chidambaram took an evergreen romance song for a survival thriller with all boys.

‘Manjummel Boys’ is once in a lifetime kind of film. Glad that I could watch it in theatres on the verge of its OTT release. Thank god it survived the duration and ran in theatres till the time I could complete all my assignments. It would have been a serious miss if I had not watched the movie in theatres. If this film could be so much impactful in spite of knowing the storyline and nuances, I can’t help but wonder how it would have been for people who had watched without knowing anything about the film and in a jam packed theatre.

The second and third act of the film was top notch, there is nothing more to say about it but look at the ingenuity of the film in the first act. When they party, play or go through winding roads with a melodious song in the background, how fitting it is. How could Malayalam cinema achieve this so easily. ‘Chennai 600028’ is the only film which I could think to have come close to such a bonding. But ‘Manjummel Boys’ was clinical. It would have induced nostalgia for anyone.

The movie starts with “Kuthanthram” song, which has interesting lyrics. It gave me “Pardesi” vibes from ‘Dev D’. “Karthanthram” could have easily qualified in any of these drug based films but comes in a film which is totally opposite. Generally when writing a disaster film, the writers would write as if all the events are culminating to that one big event. Even if the scenes or situations are different, we still have that main event running at the back of our mind, especially when you watch the film second or third time. But here it’s just another chapter in the life. Just like how the characters wouldn’t be having any clue on what’s going to happen next, we too don’t get that feel. With films like these, the rewatch value is less because it’s just the escape event we’d be focused upon but here, the first act gives a genuine joy. The escape event is just an icing on the cake.

There have been lots of articles about how Subhash (Sreenath Bhasi) who doesn’t believe in god, eventually gets the status of god in the end, how the light from above which the taxi driver friend, Prasad (Khalid Rahman) calls out as god, eventually happens to Subhash also in the form of headlight which Kuttan (Soubin Shahir) wears. The leg injury was being compared to Pamban Swamigal, the characters going through Palani can’t be mere coincidence. The one thing which I noted in addition to these are the horns which Abhilash (Chandu Salimkumar) has when he sits outside being possessed. But even without all these themes and motifs, the film works like a charm.

Thankfully being ignorant helped me experience the movie in best possible way. As soon as the boys held the rope in the pre climax, many guessed the tug of war event in the beginning was done as foreshadowing for the main event but I couldn’t till the point Abhilash goes to the top of the rock to say, “loosu vidra”. After that it was only ecstasy, I could barely sit in my seat. Even while I type the words now, I could barely sit in my seat. Films like these with feels like these come very rarely. I’m happy that I got a chance to experience this ecstasy.

There was a mention in one of the articles asking, where are women in Malayalam cinema. I don’t know about other films but with respect to Manjummel Boys, “sometimes, dear, boys would have all the fun, there is no other choice.”

Movie Review – Unda

Finally, a Mallu movie with a plot

It’s always a pleasure to watch Mammuka on screen. I’ve been a bigger fan of him than Mohanlal, even though it’s the latter whom film aficionado’s love more. So, to see the poster with Mammootty, that too in police costume was a surprise. I was thinking that it’d be one of the heroic movies with him in the foreground but the director had other ideas.

The director Khalid Rahman, right away gives the film a human effect by showing a group of policemen getting reading for a duty in different place and excited about it like college kids going on an excursion. Ammunition and food were given equal importance in the scene. When was the last time you saw food when you see a police story? Either it’d be a super cop or a cop in distress. Never had there been a normal human being as cop or a cop projected as a normal human being. Police uniform for long had been given a superhero costume effect, the day they wear it, it changes them automatically. For once here are people who are human beings and have an everyday effect on their job.

These are the people who struggle to stand in sun, have gastric problems and their own personal problems too. Sub-inspector Manikandan (Mammootty) gets a great intro when a thief sees a police person watching him and goes off without stealing the wallet. Mani just smiles and then gets asked about why he didn’t catch the thief. He coolly replies saying there are other bigger crimes happening in the world. We get to know his attitude through this scene. And he effortlessly carries this attitude till the climax. Even in the climax when his character has to explode it is safely kept as human with no extraordinary stunts.

The big group splits into three and we get to see the story of nine members amongst it. For some reason the group severely reminded me of ‘Seven Samurai’. I couldn’t give a one to one mapping of the characters to ‘Seven Samurai’ but the feel was similar. Especially the quiet guy who hardly talks in the movie, he gave me an eerie effect of ‘Seven Samurai’. As all the characters looked similar, because they were police and had a similar hair styling, the Japanese effect accentuated even more.

The way the group was formed for the film had to be appreciated. Generally, whenever a film involves a bunch of people, especially if they’re non stars, we’d see people from all walks of life and they have so much physical dissimilarities between them. But here, again, it was all human, for the sake of better word, ‘normal’. And that’s the best thing about the movie. How normalcy was maintained throughout. Even the back stories of individuals and how they don’t get to do something big towards the end was likeable. To spot two examples, the person who’s an Adivasi background, gets our sympathy but doesn’t die in a heroic act in the end. Even the speech he makes before the other people was so subdued. Mani doesn’t make it a big deal. But my favorite would be the other one who apologizes to his wife who rejects him nevertheless, that was a fun scene.

The way it was built entirely for the Maoists and how the local politicians use the term to their advantage was superbly transformed. It was quite unexpected but doesn’t feel like Deus ex machina. The development was organic. The movie concludes in a grand manner and still remains human. I didn’t like the bullets getting lost. Wish the scene could have been more interesting but by making even the last bullet hit the target accidentally was so superbly unheroic. It’s brilliant writing to have introduced a scene with such wry humor even at that critical a situation.

Ideally the scene where Mani returns back to see local goons casting fake votes should have been a Rajni like scene but even that gets practical. He even though slaps one of them, Mani gets pushed off and the whole battalion points gun at the guy who pushes Mani. Again, an example of writing good scenes. It’s a mass scene which would have worked with any actor. But because it’s Mammootty he elevates it to next level, just like how he did in ‘Munnariyippu’.

All said and done, the film could have definitely been a touch crisp. But somehow, even if slow, the film doesn’t lag and makes for an interesting watch.